Gibbs-ensemble path-integral Monte Carlo simulations of a mixed quantum-classical fluid.
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Journal Article↗
Biomedical subjects
F Schneider
Publications and source records attributed to F Schneider.
Effects of three strains of bifidobacteria on cholesterol.
To determine the validity of the hypothesis of assimilation or precipitation of cholesterol by Bifidobacterium species, resting cell assays and cultures were undertaken in TPY medium containing oxgall. With resting cell assays (pH 5), cholesterol was precipitated and redissolved in phosphate buffer (pH 7). At the end of the cultures, only part of the removed cholesterol from the culture medium was found in the phosphate buffer, while the missing cholesterol was in cell extracts. It appeared that removal of cholesterol during culturing was not solely due to its precipitation. It is concluded that growing bifidobacteria cells are able to remove cholesterol both by precipitation and assimilation.
Bifidobacterium↗
Purification and Characterization of Conjugated Bile Salt Hydrolase from Bifidobacterium longum BB536.
Bifidobacterium species deconjugate taurocholic, taurodeoxycholic, taurochenodeoxycholic, glycocholic, glycodeoxycholic, and glycochenodeoxycholic acids. The enzyme level increases in the growth phase. No increase in activity is observed for the cytoplasmic enzyme after addition of conjugated bile acids to a stationary-phase culture. Conjugated bile salt hydrolase (BSH) was purified from Bifidobacterium longum BB536. Its apparent molecular mass in denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was ca. 40,000 Da. The intact enzyme had a relative molecular weight of ca. 250,000 as determined by gel filtration chromatography, suggesting that the native BSH of B. longum is probably a hexamer. The purified enzyme is active towards both glycine and taurine conjugates of cholate, deoxycholate, and chenodeoxycholate. The pH optimum is in the range of 5.5 to 6.5. A loss of BSH activity is observed after incubation at temperatures higher than 42(deg)C; at 60(deg)C, 50% of the BSH activity is lost. The importance of free sulfhydryl groups at the enzyme active center is suggested. For B. longum BB536, no significant difference in the initial rate of deconjugation and enzymatic efficiency appears between bile salts. The enzymatic efficiency is higher for B. longum BB536 than for other genera. In this paper, a new method which permits a display of BSH activity directly on polyacrylamide gels is described; this method confirms the molecular weight obtained for B. longum BB536 BSH.
Journal Article↗
[Functional magnetic resonance tomography of psychological functions exemplified by experimentally induced emotions].
Changes in regional cerebral blood oxygenation during experimentally modified psychological activation can be measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI is a new imaging technique for perfusion-based signal intensities of the brain without the necessity of radioactivity and with superior anatomical and temporal resolution compared to positron emission tomography (PET). In this study a T2* FLASH sequence (TR 240ms, TE 60ms, slice thickness 4 mm, alpha = 40 degrees, matrix 64 x 128) was used to investigate changes in signal intensity within the temporal lobe and the amygdala during experimentally induced emotions. Visual stimuli of happy [sad] facial portraits were presented to volunteers to induce changes in the subjects' mood while lying in the tomograph. In agreement with a previous PET study, a significant increase in signal intensity in the left amygdala was found during induction of a sad mood, while no comparable effect was visible during induction of a happy mood.
Adult↗
Emotion specificity in mental retardation.
The emotion-specificity hypothesis states that mental retardation is associated with deficits in decoding facially expressed emotions that cannot be fully accounted for by MA. Research has demonstrated repeatedly that subjects with mental retardation do not perform as well on emotion recognition tasks as do control subjects but not whether those performance deficits are specific to affective cues. The emotion-specificity hypothesis was tested further with three groups of 16 subjects: adults with mild to moderate mental retardation, similar age adults without mental retardation, and children without mental retardation matched for mental age (MA). Subjects completed the Facial Discrimination Task, which has two subtasks consisting of 40 monochrome facial photographs, and rated stimuli on scales ranging from happy to sad or from young to old. Results supported the emotion-specificity hypothesis: The retarded group was significantly less accurate on the emotion task than were both control groups. On the age task the retarded adult group and nonretarded child group were less accurate than the adult control group.
Adult↗
Superiority of antagonic-stress composition versus nicergoline in gerontopsychiatry.
Nicergoline (NE)--a cerebral vasodilator with nicotinic acid esterified in its molecule--and Antagonic-Stress (AS) composition--a neurometabolic nootropic, also containing nicotinic acid but with fast and prolonged release--were evaluated in senile dementia of Alzheimer's type (SDAT), mild to moderate intensity (DSM-IV Options Book, 1991 and ICD-10, 1990 criteria). A double-blind, randomized, comparative, and parallel clinical trial was performed on 62 old people divided into 2 groups and exclusively treated with NE or AS. Psychogeriatric evaluations (Sandoz Clinical Assessment-Geriatric scale, Self-Assessment Scale-Geriatric and their subscales) and psychometric tests (digit symbol of WAIS, Wechsler Memory Scale, and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-WAIS) were made before and after 3 months of treatment. Prolonged and large dose treatments with NE and AS significantly decreased the psychogeriatric scores, diminished the deterioration index, and improved cognitive performances (ANOVA). Therapeutical effects of AS were significantly higher than those of NE (ANCOVA). The better actions of AS in senile dementia and for improving cognitive function and behavior are discussed in connection with its multiple neurometabolic composition, the synergism of components, the antiischemic action of its antioxidants, its anti-free radical complementary action (deceleration of the aging rate, brain and erythrocyte lipofuscinolysis, complex antioxidative and scavenger formula), the multivitamin and multimineral supplementation and, finally, with the superiority of multitherapy vs. monotherapy.
Aged↗
Biosynthesis of very long chain fatty acids in higher plants.
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Acyl-Carrier Protein S-Malonyltransferase↗
Standardized mood induction with happy and sad facial expressions.
The feasibility of applying ecologically valid and socially relevant emotional stimuli in a standardized fashion to obtain reliable mood changes in healthy subjects was examined. The stimuli consisted of happy and sad facial expressions varying in intensity. Two mood-induction procedures (happy and sad, each consisting of 40 slides) were administered to 24 young healthy subjects, who were instructed to look at each slide (self-paced) and try to feel the happy or sad mood expressed by the person in the picture. On an emotional self-rating scale, subjects rated themselves as relatively happier during the happy mood-induction condition and as relatively sadder during the sad mood-induction condition. Conversely, they reported that they were less happy during the sad mood-induction condition and less sad during the happy mood-induction condition. The effects were generalized to positive and negative affect as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Scale. The intraindividual variability in the effect was very small. In a retest study after 1 month, the mood-induction effects showed good stability over time. The results encourage the use of this mood-induction procedure as a neurobehavioral probe in physiologic neuroimaging studies for investigating the neural substrates of emotional experience.
Adult↗
Differential effects of mood on cortical cerebral blood flow: a 133xenon clearance study.
Studies of healthy and clinical populations have suggested valence-specific cortical and subcortical neural systems regulating emotions. In a study of 12 normal volunteers, the 133xenon clearance method for measuring regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) was used to study the effects of experimentally controlled mood states on regional brain activity within superficial cortex. CBF was measured with 254 detectors and bolus infusion during a happy mood induction task, a sad mood induction task, a sex differentiation task, and a resting baseline condition. CBF increased during sad and decreased during happy mood induction, relative to the activated (sex differentiation) and the nonactivated (resting) nonemotional control conditions. Increased CBF during sad mood induction was correlated with greater negative mood changes. Conversely, increased CBF was associated with a stronger subjective experience of positive affect during happy mood induction. This suggests that cortical arousal may serve to intensify the conscious experience of emotion. Heart rate accelerated during happy and sad mood induction and during sex differentiation relative to a pretask baseline condition. Some regional specificity of effects was also observed. The occipital temporal region showed higher overall CBF during sad mood induction than during happy mood induction. The only region that showed specific lateralized changes in CBF which differentiated sad from happy states was the frontal pole, with left CBF being higher during sad and lower during happy mood induction relative to right CBF. For sad mood induction, there were significant regional differences among correlations between CBF and self-ratings. These were attributable to higher negative correlations (i.e., higher CBF correlates with negative self-rating) in midtemporal, occipital temporal, and postcentral regions. These correlations did not vary across the 15 regions for happy mood induction. For sad mood induction, heart rate correlated positively with CBF increase and with negative affect. Correlations were opposite for happy mood induction. The results suggest high cortical and autonomic arousal during negative/sad mood and low cortical and high autonomic arousal during positive/happy mood. They underscore the value of integrating emotional experience with physiologic measures in neuroimaging activation studies.
Adult↗
Relationship between valine, fatty acids, and spiramycin biosynthesis in Streptomyces ambofaciens.
Spiramycin biosynthesis in Streptomyces ambofaciens was stimulated in the presence of valine or by sequential addition of some short-chain fatty acids to a culture medium containing an ammonium salt as source of nitrogen. Acetate kinase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase, enzymes that catalysed the formation of precursors of spiramycin biosynthesis (acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA), were detected during the active growth and antibiotic production phases. In this latter phase a higher level of acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity was observed with valine (1.02 mumol.min-1.mg protein-1) than with ammonium (0.05 mumol.min-1.mg protein-1) as nitrogen source, while the evolution and the level of acetate kinase activity were the same in both media. Successive addition of acetate and isobutyrate stimulated highly and weakly the acetyl-CoA carboxylase and acetate kinase activity, respectively.
Acetate Kinase↗
Effect of bacterial lipopolysaccharide on function of rat small femoral arteries.
The effects of endotoxin on endothelial and smooth muscle function were investigated in small femoral arteries removed from rats 4 h after intraperitoneal injection of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 20 mg/kg) or solvent. In the absence of L-arginine in the organ bath, the sensitivity of the arteries to norepinephrine (NE) was decreased only slightly, and the relaxing effects of neither 3-morpholinosydonimine-N-ethyl-carbamide (SIN-1), a nitric oxide (NO) donor, nor acetylcholine (ACh) were modified by LPS treatment despite morphological damage to the endothelium seen with scanning electron microscopy. However, L-arginine (30 microM to 1 mM), which had no effect on control vessels, caused a rapid and stereospecific relaxation of arteries from LPS-treated rats that was abolished by both NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (1 mM), a NO synthase inhibitor, and methylene blue, an inhibitor of the activation of guanylyl cyclase by NO. The relaxing effect of L-arginine was observed in the absence of endothelium, although it was significantly greater in its presence. In addition, a 30-min exposure to extracellular L-arginine (100 microM) moderately but significantly decreased the sensitivity to ACh and SIN-1 of vessels from LPS-treated but not from control rats. These results indicate that LPS treatment induced a NO synthase activity in smooth muscle cells of rat small femoral arteries and that the resulting relaxation was dependent on extracellular L-arginine in these resistance vessels.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Animals↗
Monitoring Peach Harvest Workers Exposed to Azinphosmethyl Residues in Sutter County, California, 1991
Peach harvest workers were evaluated for exposure to azinphosmethyl residues by measuring foliar residues, urinary alkylphosphate metabolites, butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and dermal residues using clothing and skin washes. Workers entered orchards 51 days after application and worked in treated fields for 10 of the next 17 days. Dislodgeable foliar residues ranged from 0.82 to 1.72 microg/cm2 and did not change significantly over the study period. Combined mean dermal exposure for the 3 consecutive monitoring days was 32 mg and ranged from 17.9 to 60.5 mg. Overall mean excretion levels for the 5 monitoring days were 1.7 mg dimethylphosphate and 1.9 mg dimethlythiophosphate. There was no significant difference in BChE between the exposed harvesters and minimally exposed sorters. The exposed group had significantly lower AChE values than the sorters for 2 post-exposure blood draws by three testing methods, while no significant difference was found for the pre-exposure blood draw. The AChE values for the post-exposure blood samples for the exposed workers decreased significantly about 10-20% over the 3-week exposure period but increased or remained constant for the sorters. Urinary metabolite excretion increased with continuous exposure and was inversely correlated with both AChE and BChE but was not correlated with dermal exposure measurements. High correlations were generally observed between AChE measurements taken in the field using a new spectrophotometric kit and laboratory AChE measurements.
Journal Article↗
Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies directed against high and low molecular weight kininogens.
HMWK and LMWK were purified from human plasma by ion exchange and affinity chromatography and used to raise anti-kininogen monoclonal antibodies. The Ig class and affinity of these Mab's that are directed at the heavy chain of the kininogens, were determined. Plasma samples of two patients, one with acquired C1-inhibitor deficiency and angioedema and one with idiopathic angioedema were analized by immunoblotting with these Mab's. Both were found to have cleaved HMWK during clinical attacks.
Angioedema↗
Coronary arteriopathy after lymphatic blockade: an experimental study in dogs.
The effects of lymph stasis on the histological and biochemical properties of the coronary arterial wall and on the coronary circulation were studied in 72 dogs. Cardiac lymph stasis was produced in 52 dogs by cardiac lymphatic blockade whereas in 20 dogs only a sham operation was performed. Blockade of cardiac lymph drainage promoted characteristic injury to the coronary arteries including subendothelial edema with plasma inbibition, interstitial and intracellular edema in the tunica media with degeneration in the smooth muscle layer, swelling of the adventitial space with dilated lymph vessels and, later, fibrosis. The biochemical properties of the coronary arterial wall also were adversely affected by cardiac lymph stasis. Thus, the collagen and hexosamine content of the coronary arteries increased and the metabolism of the coronary wall shifted in an anaerobic direction. Whereas coronary blood flow was slightly decreased with lymph blockade, the coronary circulatory reserve capacity and the adaptability of the coronary vascular system was markedly reduced. The histological changes were most apparent in the smaller coronary arteries. The coronary microvasculature was also pathologically altered with the development of numerous coronary arteriovenous microshunts. These findings in conjunction with other experimental and clinical information suggest that impaired cardiac lymph drainage contributes to the pathogenesis and progression of coronary artery disease.
Animals↗
In vivo evidence of enhanced guanylyl cyclase activation during the hyperdynamic circulation of acute liver failure.
Nitric oxide and atrial natriuretic peptides are the main activators of guanylyl cyclases, which transform GTP into cyclic GMP and thereby contribute to the decrease of vascular tone. To investigate the increase, if any, of plasma cyclic GMP concentrations in human patients with hyperdynamic circulation resulting from acute liver failure and to ascertain whether guanylyl cyclase activation is involved in the decline of systemic vascular resistance that occurs in this pathophysiological condition, we simultaneously recorded hemodynamic data and cyclic GMP levels in patients with fulminant liver failure before and after liver transplantation and in normokinetic patients undergoing abdominal nonseptic surgery. We also compared these data with those recorded in patients with hyperkinetic shock resulting from gram-negative sepsis or nitric oxide-independent vasomotor agent (carbamate) over-dose. In all these patients we simultaneously studied kidney function, platelet counts and atrial natriuretic peptides. Patients with fulminant liver failure had higher cyclic GMP concentrations than did control patients undergoing abdominal surgery (11.02 +/- 1.55 pmol.ml-1 vs. 1.77 +/- 0.18 pmol.ml-1, p < 0.001). At similar heart-loading conditions these concentrations were lower than those in gram-negative septic shock (18.2 +/- 1.35 pmol.ml-1, p < 0.05) but higher than those in carbamate-induced shock (3.6 +/- 0.7 pmol.ml-1, p < 0.01). In addition, cyclic GMP concentrations significantly decreased from the fulminant liver failure period to the posttransplantation period, although atrial natriuretic peptide levels did not change significantly and kidney function worsened.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Adolescent↗
[Possibilities for preoperative determination of transplant quality using an osteoporosis index].
Preprosthetic procedures and reconstructive measurements are typically performed in elder patients. In this age group osteoporotic changes of the skeleton are common. The facial bones are persistently envolved within this process. Preoperative assessment of bone height and width are nowadays routine procedures in preprosthetic surgery, little attention is paid towards the bone quality at the recipient site of dental implants and the donor and recipient sites of bone-grafts. This study is performed to investigate the possibility to evaluate the bone quality prior to preprosthetic and reconstructive operations. The amount of the mineralization of the skeleton was determined in 17 patients which were scheduled for preprosthetic and reconstructive surgery with the help of Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA). The amount of mineralization of the skeleton and the osteoporosis-index, which were determined with the help of DPX-scans, are representative also for the facial skeleton. In our preliminary study patients with a low skeletal mineralization have a tendency towards increased complications after preprosthetic and bone-graft surgery. In addition the preoperative assessment of bone quality serves the basis for a accompanying osteoporosis therapy.
Adult↗
Effect of cerulenin on the synthesis of very-long-chain fatty acids in microsomes from leek seedlings.
Cerulenin inhibits the elongation of stearoyl-CoA and eicosanoyl-CoA by microsomes from leek seedlings. The inhibition depends on the cerulenin concentration and affects the biosynthesis of docosanoic and tetracosanoic acids only slightly more than that of eicosanoic acid. A 30-min preincubation of the microsomes with cerulenin allows a quantitative inhibition of the elongation at 50 microM cerulenin (50% inhibition at 15 microM cerulenin). A kinetic study of the elongating activity in the presence or in the absence of the inhibitor suggests that the inhibition is non-competitive. Analysis of the products of the reaction suggests that 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase is the target of cerulenin. A study of the partial reactions demonstrates that the inhibition affects almost exclusively the condensation step.
Acetyltransferases↗
H mode of the W 7-AS stellarator.
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Journal Article↗